


The Boy Who Would Be King

by 0bviousLeigh



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Angst, Gen, Violence, not too graphic it's within the japanese show's bounds, oh and this includes some headcanons of mine, vector is such a great character for psychological fics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 13:56:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7621021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vector goes from declaring peace to killing indiscriminately.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Boy Who Would Be King

Vector is five years old when he realizes that he hates his father. He’s riding a horse, and the stable master tells him to loosen his grip on the reigns. But Vector loosens his grip too much. He falls from the horse, and his arm snaps under his own weigh.

Vector screams and runs to his parents. His mother sweeps him into her arms, calling for a doctor. But seconds later Vector is yanked backwards. He looks up and gets a brief glimpse of his father’s furious expression, then his father smacks him across the face.

“Will you run crying from a battle?” The King roars. “Even if you break your back, as long as you breathe then you will fight! Get back on the horse!”

Mother steps between Vector and his father. “He’s not a soldier, he’s a boy!”

“He is my son!” The King shouts. “I will not have him raised a weak man!”

“Papa, it hurts!” Vector sobs.

“Get on the horse!” The King orders.

“Leave him be!” The Queen pleads.

Another smack resounds across the riding ring, this time the King strikes his own wife. She stays on her feet, between her son and her husband. Finally, the King storms off.

Vector’s mother carries him to his rooms. The doctor treats Vector’s arm, and then a guard arrives to bring a pitcher of water and a bowl of grapes.

“The King says this is all you are to have until morning,” The guard says, his head lowered in shame.

When Vector and his mother are alone, Vector cries again. “Papa hurt you because of me.”

“No, it wasn’t your fault,” Mother says, stroking Vector’s hair. “It’s my job to protect you. You’re my little boy.”

But for days after, each time Vector looks at the bruise on his mother’s cheek, he’s overcome with guilt. Soon, guilt is replaced by anger. His father is a monster, a criminal who abuses his family. Vector vows he’ll never be like his father.

 

 

Vector falls off his horse again when he’s eight. He feels his arm break, but he grits his teeth and gets back on the horse.

“That’s my boy!” The King praises.

Vector imagines running a sword through his father’s chest. Sometimes, the imaginary visions of his father’s death are so tempting, Vector nearly reaches for his own sword, though he knows he would be dead before he could get close to his father with a blade. But when Vector trains with swords under the blazing sun, open wounds from a whip on his back, stomach aching with hunger, his father telling him to prepare to be a warrior…during those moments, Vector thinks death isn’t so bad. If he wasn’t worried about what would become of his mother, Vector would fall on his own sword. At least then he wouldn’t have to be his father’s perfect little soldier.

 

 

“What does the King mean to accomplish with these wars?” Vector asks his mother one night. He’s ten, and the King is off on another conquest. When the king is gone, Vector and his mother sleep in the same room, play games, and draw up star maps.

“Don’t question your father,” mother says sharply. Then she sighs, “He wants to have a strong Kingdom. You know our land has been unfairly taxed for generations. Your father finally has a strong army with which to see that we are treated fairly.”

“By killing innocents,” Vector mutters. Then he says louder, “When I am King, I will declare peace.”

The queen’s face goes white. “Keep your voice down!” She hisses, “To speak of the death of the King is treason! You could be killed!”

And though she doesn’t say it, they both know the King is not above killing his own son.

 

 

When Vector is twelve, he wanders farther from the palace than he intends to. He comes to an older building, clearly on palace grounds, but overgrown and unkempt. And Vector can see a girl, a bit older than himself, sitting under a large tree.

“What are you doing here?” Vector calls.

The girl jumps, but she glowers at Vector. “What are _you_ doing here?”

Vector comes closer. “I asked you first.”

“I live here,” The girl says. “Now you tell me.”

Vector is confused. “ _I_ live here. Well, in the palace.”

The girl frowns. “What’s your name?”

“Prince Vector.”

The girl’s face turns white. “You need to leave.” She starts to walk away, but Vector realizes that the tree she was sitting under bears a memorial slab, and he realizes that there are more on the property.

“Is this a graveyard?” Vector asks.

The girl stops in her tracks and turns around. “Yes,” she says, her voice cold as ice. “Where the King buries the wives who didn’t give him sons.”

Vector sways on his feet, feeling like he’s about to throw up. “You’re lying.”

“Am I?” The girl asks.

Vector stares at her. Her face, her hair…it’s so familiar.

“Who are you?” Vector asks.

The girl sneers and sinks into a curtsy, the gesture full of contempt. “The only girl the King didn’t have smothered at birth—Princess Astrid.” She points to the memorial slab under the tree. “And that’s where he buried my mother.”

Vector runs back to the palace. He grabs the first slave he finds a holds a sword to the slave’s throat. “Does my father have other children?” Vector demands.

The slave looks terrified. “The King will kill me,” he says.

“And yet, I’m the one with a sword to your neck,” Vector says.

The slave nods. “He does. He did. He…he ordered all but one killed.”

“Why?!” Vector demands.

“Because they weren’t sons,” the slave says tearfully. “And he killed all the women who bore them. He let one child live, because he needed an heir…I don’t know why he picked her.”

Vector releases the slave. He goes to his room, vomits into a chamber pot, and collapses on his bed. He knew his father was cruel, he’s thought of his father as a monster for years, but this…this is inhuman.

 

 

When the King falls ill, Vector almost throws a party. Instead, he accepts the position of regency, and on his first night as acting King he goes to see his half-sister in the decrepit palace. Vector has not seen Astrid face-to-face since their first meeting, but he’s bribed slaves to bring her food and clothing. Tonight, he brings her money, jewels, and a horse.

“Who knows if or when the King will recover?” Vector asks, handing her the reigns of the horse and the bag of valuables. “You have to get away from here before then. Can you ride?”

Astrid nods, looking stunned. “He’ll know that all of this is gone.”

“Its spoils from the endless wars,” Vector says. “He doesn’t even care about them anymore. Now leave, make a life for yourself away from this place.”

Astrid takes her mother’s memorial slab with her. Before she leaves, she says one more thing to Vector.

“You’ll be a good King.”

 

 

Vector declares his intent to seek peace to his father. The King flies into a rage, reaching for his sword. Vector isn’t afraid—the King is weak, the blow won’t be fatal. But then, Vector watches his mother step in front of the sword meant for him. Horrified, he reaches out to stop her, but he’s too late.

“NO!” Vector screams, catching his mother before she falls. “Mother, no! Why?!”

She touches his face, smiling up at him. “You’re my little boy. It’s my job to protect you.” She coughs once, blood spraying from her mouth, and then she goes limp.

Vector looks up at his father. “What have you done?!”

The King clutches his chest and gasps, “It’s your fault. Your actions killed her.”

Vector doesn’t notice that his father is dying. He feels like he’s drowning, like the air is being sucked from his lungs.

“I didn’t kill her…did I?”

A deep voice resonates within him. **_“You did. You killed her, and now you’ve killed your father. You’re quite the monster, aren’t you?”_**

Vector looks across the room. His father is utterly still.

“No!” Vector screams. He stands up, hands over his ears. “I didn’t, I didn’t kill anyone! I want peace!”

 ** _“Is that so?”_** The voice asks. **_“Then why are you covered in blood?”_**

Vector looks at his hands. He _is_ covered in blood.

**_“Isn’t that your sword in your mothers’ body?”_ **

Vector looks. It _is_ his sword.

“I killed her,” Vector whimpers. “I killed them both.”

 ** _“And you’ll kill again,”_** the voice says. **_“This is only the beginning. Your heart is full of darkness, Vector. The only way to purge it is to purge everyone who stands in your way. Make your Kingdom great, and you will be adored. The darkness will be gone. You will rule the world.”_**

 

 

The next day, Vector stands before his people and declares that the King and Queen were killed by invaders from a neighboring kingdom. Over the wails of the crowd, Vector swears that he will become a King who avenges the losses his kingdom has suffered.

“I will not stop until they are all dead!” Vector screams to the crowd. He raises his sword. “Their blood will run in the streets! Down with the traitors to our crown!”

The wails subside, and the crowd takes up a chant. “Long Live King Vector! Long Live the King!”

Vector smiles, letting the cheers wash over him.

A tiny voice in the back of Vector’s mind says, ‘ _Astrid would not approve._ ’

“Who is Astrid?” Vector asks himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Ah Vector. My piece of trash son whom I love for his truly violent past. Good lord I wish it had been explored a little more. I wish we had seen more of Vector's relationship with the father who nearly killed him for declaring peace and the mother who jumped in front of the sword for him. I wish we had seen more of how Don Thousand twisted this promising little princeling into a bloodthirsty monster. 
> 
> Alas, all I can do is write fanfic about it.


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